Only one love, p.1
Only One Love, page 1
Only One Love
Natasha Madison
Contents
Stone Family Tree
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue One
Epilogue Two
Books By Natasha Madison
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Stone Family Tree
Only One Regret
Cooper
My name came with big skates to fill.
At the top of my game, I had everything I wanted, or so I thought.
Being traded to Dallas was not what I was expecting,
but neither were the divorce papers I was served.
Now I’m a single dad in a city that isn’t my home.
* * *
Erika
Handed my biggest client when I was twenty-two made my dreams come true.
Over time, our work relationship changed.
We grew closer, leaning on each other for support.
He was my rock, my best friend.
Then one drunken night changed everything,
and I saw what was in front of me all along.
I just hope that when the dust settles, we won’t regret it.
* * *
SOMETHING SO, THIS IS AND ONLY ONE FAMILY TREE!
* * *
Hockey Series
SOMETHING SO SERIES
* * *
Something So Right
Parker & Cooper Stone
Matthew Grant (Something So Perfect)
Allison Grant (Something So Irresistible)
Zara Stone (This Is Crazy)
Zoe Stone (This Is Wild)
Justin Stone (This Is Forever)
* * *
Something So Perfect
Matthew Grant & Karrie Cooley
Cooper Grant (Only One Regret)
Frances Grant (Only One Love)
Vivienne Grant
Chase Grant
* * *
Something So Irresistible
Allison Grant & Max Horton
Michael Horton (Only One Mistake)
Alexandria Horton
* * *
Something So Unscripted
Denise Horton & Zack Morrow
Jack Morrow
Joshua Morrow
Elizabeth Morrow
* * *
THIS IS SERIES
This Is Crazy
Zara Stone & Evan Richards
Zoey Richards
* * *
This Is Wild
Zoe Stone & Viktor Petrov
Matthew Petrov
Zara Petrov
* * *
This Is Love
Vivienne Paradis & Mark Dimitris
Karrie Dimitris
Stefano Dimitris
Angelica Dimitris
* * *
This Is Forever
Caroline Woods & Justin Stone
Dylan Stone (Formally Woods)
Christopher Stone
Gabriella Stone
Abigail Stone
* * *
ONLY ONE SERIES
* * *
Only One Kiss
Candace Richards & Ralph Weber
Ariella Weber
Brookes Weber
* * *
Only One Chance
Layla Paterson & Miller Adams
Clarke Adams
* * *
Only One Night
Evelyn & Manning Stevenson
Jaxon Stevenson
Victoria Stevenson
* * *
Only One Touch
Becca & Nico Harrison
Phoenix Harrison
Dallas Harrison
* * *
Only One Regret
Erika Markinson & Cooper Grant
Emma Grant
Mia Grant
Parker Grant
Matthew Grant
* * *
Only One Mistake
Jillian & Michael Horton
Jamieson Horton
Only One Love
Frances Grant & Brad Wilson
Only One Forever
Alex Horton & Dylan Stone
Copyright © 2022 Natasha Madison. E-Book and Print Edition
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locals are entirely coincidental.
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Cover Design: Jay Aheer https://www.simplydefinedart.com/
Photo by Wander Photography
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Created with Vellum
Chapter 1
Frances
The phone rings as soon as I sit down in the car. "Hello." With a huff, I answer it after just one ring as I put my bag on the passenger seat.
"How are you already done with your workout?" my sister mumbles, and I can hear the rustling of covers coming from her end of the line.
"I couldn’t sleep," I answer, "so I figured I’d start the day early."
"It’s the ass crack of dawn." Her voice sounds far away, so I know she’s under the covers.
I laugh, pulling out of my driveway. "You know what they say." I have to roll my lips, knowing how much she hates this saying. "The early bird catches the worm."
"No one says that," she groans. "Let me take that back. No one under sixty says that."
I shake my head, laughing. "I’m an old soul."
"I’ve seen your soul. There is not much there, and what is there isn’t old."
"Aw, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me," I joke.
"But seriously," she says, and I can hear her moving. "It’s six o’clock."
"I have that big meeting today," I remind her. "And I want to make sure I’m ready."
"You were born ready." She tries to give me a pep talk.
"You weren’t there yesterday," I tell her. "Do you know how many times one of the men said ‘yes, dear’?” It’s my turn to groan. “Like, I’m not your fucking dear.”
“Did you answer them like that?” She laughs while she asks, and I can hear a cupboard door slam. “Because if you didn’t, maybe you should.”
“No, God no.” I pull into the line at Starbucks and order my drink. “Can you imagine what they would have said?”
“Yeah, they would have said don’t fuck with that one. She comes from New York.” We both laugh.
"It’s been two days." It’s still surreal that I have this job. When they came to me a month ago, I thought it was a joke. I was creating content for an online sports show, and even that was a fluke. I started creating the content for my high school and really enjoyed it, so I decided to pursue journalism. After I completed the internship at my grandfather’s media company, I knew the only reason I got a job was because of who I was. "They just have to get to know me. I figure we can have this meeting today, and they can see what I’m going to do."
"Or they expect you to bow down to them." I cringe at the thought. When Andrew Keeland came calling, I knew I had to take that leap. He loved what I did, and then he offered me my whole show, producing my own show. It was a dream come true, and I got it because of my skill and not who I was. So, I took the job without telling anyone or asking anyone’s advice. Jumped in with both feet without testing the water or even looking at it. Little did I know what I was walking into. You see, apparently, it’s a man’s world.
"Well, I’m not doing that," I say as I pull up to the office building. "They are going to have to pull me out kicking and screaming if they expect me to just cave."
"That’s my girl." I can hear her clapping her hands. I put the car in park and look out to see the sun starting to come up. "Now go get your fishing rod and get that fish."
I laugh. "No one ever says that." I grab my bag and my phone, changing it from Bluetooth to speaker, then turn back to grab my coffee. "Now, wish me luck."
"I’ll get a sho
I take a deep breath when the elevator doors open, and the sun streams in from the windows. The big brown desk right in front of the doors sits empty since Tanya doesn't start until eight o’clock.
Turning to walk toward my office, which I moved into two days ago, I have all these flutters in my stomach. Looking around, I see I’m the first one in. I smile at myself, knowing that people will notice, and it means I have one check mark in my column. A column I’m the only one participating in.
Walking into my office, I toss my bag in one of the empty chairs that face the desk. Reaching over, I put my coffee cup on the desk while I slip off my black blazer. I must have changed my outfit five times this morning before finally settling for cream pants with a sheer white silk, short-sleeved shirt.
Sitting in my chair, I log in to the computer and take a minute to look at the empty walls. I make a mental note to come in on Saturday and start making this office my own. I work my way through emails, and as always, I watch the highlights of the games from the night before. It’s just preseason games right now, but it’s good to see the boys back at it.
"Good morning." My assistant, Ava, sticks her head into my office with a smile. "You are here bright and early." She hands me a cup of coffee she picked up for me.
"That is so kind," I say, smiling at her.
"My pleasure. Should I get my notes, and we can talk about the meeting today?" I found this out yesterday on my first day here, when Ava told me that my new board meeting would be today. I would be the only lady there, so they wanted to know if I had any needs. Assholes.
"That would be great." With a nod, she walks out of the office, grabbing her notepad and coming back in. "Let's throw some ideas around," I tell her, but in my head, I already know what I want to pitch. It was something that came to me last night while I was taking a shower.
When I tell her my idea, her eyes light up. “That sounds really good.” She smiles, and when she walks out of my office, I get up, the nerves in my stomach starting.
"Ms. Grant." I hear Ava call my name and look over at her. "It’s time."
Getting up, I grab my iPad and we head over to the conference room. I walk with my head high and my blond hair pinned in a ponytail, straight into a room with a table full of men who all look in their forties and fifties. "Gentlemen." Pulling out the only available chair, I sit down with my papers in front of me. Water bottles are lined up in the middle of the table.
"You got here bright and early," Jeffrey says, looking at me with a smirk. From what Ava told me, he’s the oldest one here. He has his head stuck in nineteen ninety and thinks we should just recycle shows. "Nervous?"
I smile at him instead of doing what I want to do, which is glare. "Not even a bit." I grab my pen with my hand instead of flipping him the bird, which is something else I want to do. "Shall we get started?" I look around the table at the six men, all of them dressed in button-down dress shirts. "Why don’t we go around the table, and we can hear everyone’s idea?"
One of the guys chuckles, and I know they are testing me. It’s like a pissing contest. "Unless you guys don’t have any ideas, and then I can just jump in." The guys all look at me with condescending looks.
"I have an idea," Spencer says, and I look over at him. He’s the youngest of the whole bunch, and from what Ava said, he got here about a year before me. "What about the series of has-beens?" He looks around the table. "Big back in the day and nowhere to be found."
"She has a whole family of that," one of them mumbles, and my blood starts to boil. It’s one thing for me to insult my family, but it’s another for someone else to do it.
"I like it," I tell him honestly. "We could also do players that were drafted first but didn’t live up to the hype," I say, leaning back. "Of course that would be like no one in my whole family since they were pretty much drafted first and then hit the top of the leaderboard with points." I look around the table, and some of the men avoid my eyes. "But what do I know? So we will put that one on the board." I then look around. "Anyone else have anything that they want to bring forward?"
"What do you have in mind?" Earl asks, his stuffy white mustache hiding his whole top lip. "Since they brought you in to brighten up the network."
I ignore the last part of his sentence. "I was thinking we could do a weekly show on bad boys of hockey," I start the pitch "Past, present, and future. Everyone always looks at the bad boys when they are on the ice, but no one knows how they got the title." I smile. "I mean we, the press, give them the title of bad boys, but who are they really?"
"I like that.” Spencer tilts his head to the side. "I like that idea better than my own." He smiles at me, and I nod.
"We could perhaps make a list of people and reach out to them." I flip over my notes. "I do have a couple in my family I can ask." I look over at Earl. "Figure they can brighten up the screen."
"It’s not a horrible idea," one of the men says.
"Good," I say, pushing back from the table. "Since no one else has any ideas, besides Spencer.” I look over at Spencer and smile at him. “I’m going to call it and confirm this will be our weekly segment." I look around the table, waiting for someone to come back with a snide comment. "I’ll set up an email and send it to all of you with the details on how I want it, as well as any names I come up with." I gather my things off the table. "Gentlemen, this was a great first meeting." Turning, I walk toward the door, stopping when I pull it open. "And for future meetings …" My voice comes out tense. "Why don’t we stop wasting everyone’s time and actually come prepared?" I don’t give them a chance to say anything to me because I walk out. My whole neck burns, but I force myself not to show just how mad I am.
"Oh, oh," Ava says when she sees me walking back. "That didn’t take long."
"Oh, oh is right. If they thought they could come in and be all broody, they obviously didn’t do their homework." I shake my head, laughing, not adding in that my whole family is filled with broody men, starting with my father. "In other news"—I fold my arms over my chest—"we got the bad-boy segment."
Chapter 2
Wilson
I walk down the red carpet toward Martin’s office, mixing my protein shake. I just got off the ice from practice, and fuck, it felt good to be back with the guys. I took two weeks off after the end of the season, and then I started training again. I am getting older, and my body was telling me that I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore, so I wanted to be as prepared as I could this year.
"You're looking fit," Michael says when I walk past him in the hallway. He was traded here last year after he had a fight with his coach. It was plastered all over the media, but he never said a word about it to anyone.
"You're looking like you are getting the dad bod," I joke, and he laughs, shaking his head.
"Dad bod, my ass." He lifts his shirt to show me his abs.
"Gross." I shake my head and walk away from him.
Smiling at a couple of the guys, I knock on the closed door before Martin yells to come in.
Opening the door, I step in, stopping when I see Nico, the owner of the team, seated with him. "Oh, shit," I say, and they laugh when I walk into the office and close the door. "It’s like I’m in trouble or something. Going to the principal’s office."
